When business is linked to social conscience, seldom consumers appreciate the connections. But there is one eco-friendly tissue paper manufacturer in the Philippines that for a decade now endures to balance these two opposing principles. “We endure to strike a balance between profit and social conscience,” says Quanta Paper Corporation president & general manager Steven Leung.

Founded on business principle of sustainable practices, Quanta Paper manufactures hygienic tissue products using used office paper as raw materials instead of virgin fibers. This thrust is geared towards preservation of world’s rainforest where deforestation remains a traditional practice in the paper making industry to extract virgin fibers.

The Run for Sustainability, or dubbed as R3RUN (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle Run) is designed to inspire environmental action among Filipino consumers and raise awareness on climate change. It also aims to educate consumers on the importance of green labelled products and how patronizing them could help in a way to protect our planet.

Integrated through a healthy and fun lifestyle activity, the R3RUN serves both a strategic marketing and social responsibility tools of the Company. “We would like to be more loudly in telling our story of sustainable practices and at the same time capitalize in building our brand equity,” says Quanta Paper corporate strategist and Race Committee head Neil Erich Galicia. The Company finds that most Filipinos do not have enough knowledge on climate change and the threat that it poses to the country and to the world. “The Run is a step forward to begin a bold and concrete action. In this way we could start a wave that could reach through every corner of our archipelago.” He explained.

Assembly and Gun-time

Actual Race Shirt and 8K Bib

Activity Area

The activity and program venue will be inspired by an EcoVillage theme. It will showcase some of the best environmental photo exhibits and social efforts both by the Company and by its invited partners. The Company will also have a photo exhibit on how hygienic tissue is produced from waste paper to its finished product.

There will be games and other interactive activities within the EcoVillage, all focused on environmental stewardship. The Company will also build a Green Warrior Memorial in the EcoVillage to honor and remember those forest and sea rangers who gave their lives fighting to protect and preserve the Philippines’ natural resources.

Booth Highlights

Top 3 Finisher's Medal and Cash Prize

Race Route:

General Race Guidelines:

General Race Guidelines

Participants will range from students, government officials and employees, artists and TV personalities, corporate partners and green advocates. Part of the participants is Jasmine Curtis-Smith, the Company’s brand endorser for its new sanitary napkin product.

On June 1, Alaska celebrates World Milk Day. This year, Alaska will make World Milk Day Celebration much bigger. There will be simultaneous events in Baguio, Cebu, and Davao which will encourage fitness enthusiasts and their families to join fitness classes in the morning (between 6:30-8:00 am).

Alaska is focusing on building a habit in milk drinking and what better way to do it is to promote milk drinking during breakfast. Breakfast with Alaska milk is a way to take in good nutrition in the morning paving a way for consumers to start their day right. At 7:30am on June 1, every participant from Manila, Baguio, Cebu, and Davao will get food items (champorado, pandesal, cereals) and beverage (powdered) made with Alaska milk to participate in the 1st ever Alaska Gatas for Breakfast. This movement encourages everyone to start the day right with a nutritious breakfast with Alaska Milk. On top of milk drinking, Alaska also encourages people to eat nutritious breakfast by adding milk on food. Popular Pinoy breakfast, such as champorado and pandesal partnered with Alaska Evap and Condensed milk makes it more nutritious.

There will be an online promo where individuals at home can take part in the celebration by uploading a self-photo with milk moustache with a personal message on why they love milk or a pledge to a healthy lifestyle with milk. An app will be developed to collate all the photos and those who will join should include the hashtags: #AlaskaWorldMilkDay and #GatasForBreakfast.

The Children’s Hour will still be the beneficiary of Alaska World Milk Day and Alaska will be donating an equivalent number of milk products (33g sachet) to the partner organization for every runner on June 1.

No one knows Adventure like yurbuds. In a staunch advocacy dedicated towards the athlete and the outdoor community, yurbuds®, maker of the number one sport earphone in the United States guaranteed never to hurt or fall out, comes out with its newest offering: the new Adventure series geared towards the outdoor community. Yurbuds continues to design sport equipment for the needs of every type of athlete.

As an avid hiker, yurbuds designer Aaron Gorga is in tune with the outdoor community. By listening closely to the needs of his network, he created an innovative earphone that looks and feels like “gear” a hiker, climber or adventurer would use.

“Extreme outdoor athletes are accustomed to durable, water resistant gear that has a certain rugged look and feel,” said avid hiker and yurbuds designer Aaron Gorga, lead designer of the Adventure Line. “All of the details, such as the cord’s joint housing, location of the vents, and the way we layered materials were rethought and improved to exceed expectations.”

The new Adventure Line features all classic yurbuds qualities including a sweat and water resistant design for active use, FlexSoft™ comfort fit and TwistLock™ Technology that is guaranteed to never fall out. Additionally, the Adventure Line has tangle-resistant, rubberized woven cords which increase the water resistance to the IPX 5 level. The housing design and snap fit enhancers provide premium sound quality, and the QuikClik™ magnets allow for easy storage and access on the go.

The Adventure Line includes both in-ear “Venture” models and over-the-ear “Explore” models. The Venture and Explore Talk include a one-button microphone and is compatible with all smart phones including Android devices. The Explore Talk offers added comfort and support with a behind-the-ear design featuring soft, moldable ear loops.

“We are excited to release a new line that really delivers everything our adventurous customers want in an earphone,” said Daniel DeVille, Director of Marketing for yurbuds. “From concept to development and manufacturing, the Adventure Line was created not only for our community, but also with them.”

Designed to withstand the toughest outdoor conditions, the Adventure Line is guaranteed to never hurt, fall out, or lose sound quality, no matter how intense the journey. They are the first of their kinds created to work seamlessly with the enthusiast’s other outdoor gear.

The Adventure Line series is available in the following outlets: Power Mac Center, Runnr, Planet Sports, R.O.X., Columbia Sportswear, & Mountain Hardwear. For additional information on yurbuds, visit yurbudsph on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter or check out www.yurbuds.com.

About yurbuds

Yurbuds was founded in 2008 by Seth Burgett, President and CEO, an active triathlete and Richard Daniels, COO, a 24-time marathoner. Burgett and Daniels left their corporate roles and joined forces to improve personal performance. They have been joined by Craig Ceranna, CFO and Managing Director, to realize the company's mission: transform the athlete's experience through personalized service and exceptional audio products that integrate ergonomics and emotive design.

As a company, yurbuds was recently honored by the 2013 International CEA Innovations Design and Engineering Awards for the Focus Limited Edition. yurbuds has also been awarded for its marketing, including a 2011 “Site of the Day” for Awwwards.com and a 2010 GOOD DESIGN AWARD. Forbes also named yurbuds the 9th Most Promising Company in America for 2009.

Prior to the Brooks Run Happy 3 race that was held last May 11 at Sierra Madre in Tanay, Rizal, a friend asked me about this event curious and eager to know what is Cross Country running: "are you really going to cross to another Country?". That question was too familiar to me as I have also asked that myself a few years ago and it made me wonder if at some point, did a similar question also crossed the minds of the other runners as well.

Generally, a Cross country run is very much similar with trail running, except that Cross Country races have governed rules and guidelines from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), specially in the US, Canada, Australia, and a number of Countries in Europe where it is most popular. The race course is mostly laid out in an open area that are grass-covered, majority of the route is trails of all sorts, but may also have some pavement along the way, rolling terrain with frequent but smooth turns, and with distances varying only between 2.5-km to 12-km. In contrast, trail running is loosely governed and is run over longer routes and mostly single track.

So if we look into the distance category, we can define Brooks Run Happy 3 as a combination or mix of both Cross country and Trail running. One previous race that is closely similar to a Cross Country race is the Biodiversity Run held in UPLB way back in 2010 and the 1st leg of the Immuvit Fearless Challenge (if without the obstacles).

24K Runners at the starting line

The welcoming breeze of the Sierra Madre mountain range in Tanay was a great getaway for this year's 3rd installment of the Brooks Run Happy as the venue offers variety of terrains, knee-crunching and lung-busting hills with great view alongside the route, and what's more exciting is that it has become a not so far-away out-of-town race for the participants. The homey starting line atmosphere at the garden beside the Assembly Hall of the Sierra Madre Hotel (where the recent Sierra 51050 was held) was also a respite from the mostly urban race venues.

16K Runners took-off from the starting line - photo by Photo-Ops

From the starting line, runners went off to the highway for about less than 100-meters and turning left entering Brgy. Laiban towards a steep downhill fire/dirt road which covers around 4-kilometers. This made it easy for us to gain our momentum and warm-up our legs. The continuous downhill gave me a pace between 4:10 to 4:30-mins/km but this gave my toes a hot friction short of having an early chafing, so I slowed down a bit and tried to land more softly on each stride. Being an out-and-back course, this same downhill becomes an upHELL of a climb on our way back!

Ankle deep river crossings were also aplenty despite the summer heat although most no longer bothered to soak or tread their shoes on the streams, but to conserve time, I just wade through and savored the still cool, flowing waters. Unfortunately the wide but short Maysawa waterfalls at the U-turn area was dry, so the runners who were hoping to splash through it were dismayed -- nobody's fault though!

16K U-turn at Maysawa Falls

The residents of I think Brgy. Sto. Niño were all friendly spectators. The kids were enjoying counting how many runners have already passed-by, and even counting like a "noisy" list those who were not wearing the neon-green Brooks shirt. Their good mornings and high-fives made the runners smile and break their running monotony, one villager even put-up his own small "hydration" station with a jug of cold water. Such welcoming people!

Going up to the descent we took at the start was the most challenging part of the route (oh wait, there were also obstacles waiting near the finish line) -- what goes down, goes up! As the ascent began, I hit it with an all through out powerwalk and sometimes reverse walk. My lack of speed and hills training was slowly taking a toll on my legs although my cardiovascular was still coping up. I was trying to go beyond my maximum 180-bpm heart rate during the ascent but it was my legs that can't go anymore when during my good-feel powerwalk, my left calf just suddenly twitched and cramped. After pausing to wait for the muscles to relax, I proceeded with slower walk until both my left and right calves went cramping happily, errr... alternately.

Uphill at a dirt road

and an uphill towards a concrete road

About more than 200-meters before the finish line at the camping grounds of Sierra Madre Hotel (below the garden area), it was a steeper downhill that we have to course through, I was again walking backwards on this downhill part towards the obstacle area consisting of a short Military wall, net climbs, tire skips, and inclined wall. The monkey bars and tire swing was removed because (as I heard) some runners fell down. The last 100-meters was again, going up! My calves became so hardened from the onset of cramps so I just walked sidewards and jogged the remaining 10-meters to the finish line to feel the last drop of my adrenaline. Then what happened? I can't move both my feet after crossing, thankfully though, the presence of the gorgeous medal girls were enough to refill the energy to take photos with them! :)

the pain.. oh, the pain!

In summary, the race was a great experience, two thumbs-up to the race organizers for coming up with such race that caters to beginner trail runners and even to the elite ones. Hydration stations were enough, with one energy drink/gatorade station and cold sponge station.

What made Tanay so hot! - photo by Roy Agsunod

with the Mamaws of the trail

Oh, because I needed to take a lot of rest after crossing the finish line, we were able to stay until the program finished and won myself at the raffle with a Moving Comfort sports bra!

The route, pace (white lines), and elevation profile (orange line) as recorded with Suunto Ambit 2S. Click the image for more details.

Last 16th of May 2014, the newest member of Alaska Sports Family -- the Alaska Tri-Aspire Team was launched during the "The Power of Tri: 3 Weekends, 3 Great Sports Events" Conference held at the Seda Hotel in BGC. The launching was part of the three succeeding weekends of the Alaska Sports Events which started with the event highlight -- Alaska Cycle Philippines last May 17, to be followed by the Alaska IronKids Philippines Aquathlon on May 25, and will conclude on June 1 with the Alaska World Milk Day Family Run.

Alaska Tri-Aspire Team

The Alaska Tri-Aspire Team is the professional Triathlon team of Alaska composed of two (2) of the world's best Professional Athletes plus six (6) Filipino Elite Development Athletes who will be under Coach Mathieu O’Halloran’s guidance in training to become a world-class team that can represent the country in triathlon races worldwide. The elite team is also mainly composed of Filipino athletes because Alaska Milk Corp. wanted to focus on developing and nurturing grassroots talents.

The aim for the team is to produce legitimate professional athletes that can be competitive in 5i50, 70.3, Ironman distance, and XTERRA events and athletes that will represent the Philippines in the Asian Beach Games, Asian Games and Olympic Games. The roster of the Alaska Tri-Aspire team are as follows:

Let us all cheer as the Alaska Tri-Aspire Team proudly wave the Philippine flag at the races they will conquer. Their unrivaled passion, fearless determination and steadfast discipline will bring them closer to monumental victories Filipinos around the world will be proud of.

Skechers GORun ambassador and America’s #1 marathoner Meb led the pack of elite runners to the finish line in the 2014 Boston Marathon in his high-performance Skechers GORun shoes.

Meb’s victory became a feel-good story in the running community, following the devastating bombing incident in last year’s Boston Marathon as he is the first American to win in the prestigious Boston Marathon after three decades with a new personal-best time record of 2:08:37.

Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing for Skechers Performance Division Rick Higgins said, “We are so proud of Meb and his monumental accomplishment on what was clearly a very emotional day...if [he] can do it in Skechers shoes, so can you.”

"With the support of the Skechers Performance Division by my side every step of the way, I have won for the city of Boston, and for the entire U.S.," said Meb Keflezighi (“Keff-Lez-Gee”) at his Boston Marathon presser.

The Skechers Performance Division first signed Meb in 2011 to represent the Skechers Performance Division as it launched its new footwear line. The Skechers GORun is designed for speed with its innovative M-Strike Technology to promote a mid-foot strike (two-point step: mid-toe), allowing more fluid and powerful strides than a heel strike (three-point step: heel-mid-toe).

Meb transitioned from a heel strike to a mid-foot strike runner with Skechers GORun, giving him an effortless and faster take off. Since that time, Skechers M-Strike Technology’s influence on the improvement of Meb’s PR (personal record) has been evident.

At 36, he ran in the NYC Marathon in Skechers GORun back in 2011 and posted a personal-best time in finishing sixth in New York that day, and then lowered it again in winning the U.S. Olympic trials just two months later. Meb also won more than five key races, including the U.S. Half Marathon Championship in Houston in January 2014, and the U.S. Olympic Trials in Houston in 2012.

While his winning the 2014 Boston Marathon might have come as a surprise to many given his age during the race was just two weeks before Meb turns 39, he attained greater achievements and established his personal best time record, running like a blur ever since he shifted to Mid-foot Strike Technology with Skechers GORun.

“It’s a pretty massive deal for a non-traditional running shoe company,” said Eric Smallwood, senior vice president of Front Row, a Philadelphia marketing and analytics company focused on sports. “If you’re a runner and you get a PR (personal record) in a new pair of shoes, you’re sticking with those.”

Osteoporosis refers to a progressive loss of bone density, resulting in weaker bones that are more apt to break or fracture at even mild trauma. Aging, heredity, diet and lifestyle are all factors in osteoporosis, as are certain medications and medical conditions. Osteoporosis is a often a factor in hip fractures, which frequently lead to hip replacement surgery.

Check out the infographic below (click image to download) about Osteoporosis to be aware and prevent yourself from becoming one.

Suunto Ambit2 R can also help you reach your performance goals. You can plan your own moves, or download complete training programs from Movescount.com. The watch reminds you of daily targets, tracks target completion, and provides speed and intensity guidance while you run.

Additionally, Track-back and full navigation offer the freedom to explore new trails without getting lost. Download routes from Movescount.com or simply select Track-back at any point during a run. Suunto Ambit2 R will show you the way.

Suunto Ambit 2R is now available at all Time Depot stores at an SRP of Php 22,500.00

Suunto Ambit2 R is available in black or white, with the white sporting a soft silicone strap for an improved fit for women. Both can be purchased with or without a Suunto heart rate belt.

With Suunto Apps, even more running features become available. Personalize your Suunto Ambit2 R with running Apps of your own, or choose from the thousands of free Apps in the App Zone on Movescount.com. They include:

Virtual coach: Let the coach determine when you should run easy and hard! This App is for endurance intervals. Select your pace level and the coach will give you target paces to run.

Ghost runner: Challenge yourself against a competitor. A positive distance means that you're ahead while a negative one means you need to pick up the pace.

Running efficiency: This App helps you improve your running efficiency by recording the number of heart beats over a kilometer / mile.

High intensity intervals: This App gives a short but sharp interval work out. Start with a warm up, run 15 x 200m with 30sec recovery and end with a cool down.

Marathon time: It uses your current speed to give an estimate of your finish time during a marathon, so you can see if you're on track for that target time.

Movescount.com, the online sports diary from Suunto, makes it easy to analyze every aspect of your training and share your experiences with others.

Suunto has been designing and manufacturing gear for adventurers, explorers and divers for over 75 years. Built into every product is a level of robustness and durability beyond the ordinary — and the Ambit2 R is no exception. Waterproof to 50 meters and with a 12-hour battery life in GPS mode, you can rely on Suunto Ambit2 R, whatever the conditions.

All new features will also be made available to Ambit2 and Ambit2 S users via a software upgrade later in spring.

About Suunto

Suunto was founded in 1936 by Tuomas Vohlonen, a Finnish orienteer and inventor of the liquid-filled field compass. Since then Suunto has been at the forefront of design and innovation for sports watches, dive computers and instruments used by adventure seekers all over the globe. From the highest mountains to the deepest oceans, Suunto physically and mentally equips outdoor adventurers to conquer new territory.

Suunto's headquarters and manufacturing plant is in Vantaa, Finland. Employing more than 400 people worldwide, Suunto products are sold in over 100 countries. The company is a subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation along with its sister brands Salomon, Arc'teryx, Atomic, Wilson, Precor, and Mavic.

So, it has almost been a year already and somehow, I was able to use most of the features of the Suunto Ambit 2S GPS watch, and what I could say is that I am totally impressed about the features, the design, and as well as the watch's functionality. A truly multi-sports watch, reviewing this gear for just a short period gives injustice to the many features that this watch can offer an Athlete, be it with the popular swim-bike-run events, the snow sports, water sports, racquet sports, or even to ball lover enthusiasts and adventurers.

Just a few days ago (02 May 2014), the watch's firmware gets updated into version 2.0.7, and with this update, some of my previously observed drawbacks and must-have features were addressed such as the "power-off" option that will greatly save your battery specially for off-seasons (if you do follow an off-season) and a more useful lap information browsing on the exercise log.

Give it some time to rest!

Another previous firmware update to version 1.5.14 on the last quarter of 2013 have also addressed a lot of improvement about the watch's features such as the GPS recording rate which greatly affects the GPS accuracy and battery life. This new update now has another GPS recording interval of 5-seconds which allows the battery to last up to 12-hours with better accuracy than the previous firmware (ver. 1.0.15) which can only be set in either 1-second or 60-seconds interval.

Firmware update via the Moveslink 2 applet

The Ambit 2S measures almost everything that a mountaineer needs except for the barometer and temperature. Altitude measurement is also pretty much accurate and it can also measure your vertical speed, total ascents and descents, average and peak heart rate, calories burned, average and maximum pace, and with the latest firmware update, your fastest pace is now displayed after your workout as well as a lap-by-lap chrono information, average pace, and average heart-rate.

One more thing that amazes me is the Ambit 2S' capability in measuring your SWOLF (swimming golf) or swimming efficiency. Although I haven't tested it yet thoroughly in outdoor swimming, it was a great information tool for me on my indoor swim trainings. Not just the SWOLF but it can also track your swimming style and number of strokes on a given pool length.

Measure every move you make!

As for outdoor swimming (in the open field/ocean), it's still a work in progress as the distance measurement seemed to be not moving even after the recent firmware update.

From movescount.com, there's also the AppZone where you can choose from many ready or custom-made apps that can be uploaded/integrated on your device to aid you with your goals and/or trainings such as the interval trainer. If you're a geek and want to tweak or create your own apps for your own use or for public consumption, you may do so from the App Designer. Here you can create apps from the very simple to the most complicated one that you can think and that your device can handle, of course! I have previously created a simple "Night mode" app just for me to test and get a feel of the App Designer. I've integrated that app to my runs so that the watch's backlight will automatically turn-on in the evening when I'm running.

Do more aside from tracking your moves

In summary, here's my take on the Suunto Ambit 2S. These are just the current features, and some of the items posted as room for improvements might soon become outdated as the firmware gets updated every now and then:

Great Features

Weighs just 73-grams, only 15.41-mm thick, and 49.89-mm wide (excluding the buttons).

When GPS signal is already locked, GPS signal is re-locked in less than 5-secs after turning the GPS on and off

GPS automatically switches-off when an exercise is stopped

Average GPS search-time is 30-seconds to 1.5 minutes on initial GPS locking.

Availability of firmware releases which gives regular updates and improvements to your device.

Availability and speedy feedback of online Suunto support for any issues (my own ticket was replied back and addressed in less than 24-hrs).

You can add/edit/delete or create your own sports mode via movescount.com.

Route map in movescount.com is color-coded by the current pace or heart rate when the HRM strap is used.

Navigating the waters of Masbate to Pio Duran via a Ro-Ro ship

Create your own sports mode and use it in your Suunto Ambit watch

Rooms for Improvement

With the availability of customizable screen displays, comes the limitation of available lines per screen which is only up to three (3) lines. This was supplemented though with up to three (3) scrollable data on the 3rd line.

The latest map update on the website made the zooming-in of the route very limited to only a farther distance.

Personal data, date, and time is reset back when the watch's battery is drained or manually turned-off via the service menu.

Distance markers on the route map is no longer displayed after the route is saved via Route Planner in movescount.com.

No graphical presentation of the route elevation from the Route Planner in movescount.com.

No battery limit/margin while the GPS is running which causes the battery to totally drain(addressed in the v2.0.9 firmware update, GPS/move auto-saves and stop at 2% battery level).

GPS recording rate can only be switched to either off, every intervals of 1-second (best GPS accuracy for 8-hrs battery life) or 60-seconds (25-hrs battery life). I hope there's an option for lower time intervals like between 3- to 30-seconds for better battery saving while maintaining the GPS recording accuracy (addressed in the v1.5.14 firmware update, additional GPS recording rate of 3-seconds which gives good accuracy and 12-hrs battery life.)

Some features (like the autolap, height, age, gender) can only be configured in the Customization section of movescount.com(addressed in the v2.0.7 firmware update, personal settings may already be configured from the watch.)

The built and quality of the strap gives injustice to the great features of this watch because in just sixteen (16) months, my Ambit 2S' strap has already gave up (see photo below). The other downside is the replacement (not original) strap costs too much at Php 3,500++, so until now I'm still saving up for this perhaps, much lower quality strap.

Essential and Cool Features

Navigation - one of my favorite tool in tracking an unknown territory or route that greatly helps in finding my way from Point A to Point B as plotted at the route planner of movescount.com without getting lost.

POI (Points of Interest) - sometimes when you're out running and so focused, you might miss some great landmarks or pit-stops along the way. POI can remind you when you're already approaching one as you have defined while planning your route.

Routes - planned routes may be uploaded to your watch and use it in your next exercise/move -- another one of the best feature.